[Michael Sigmon]"One last question: any idea about the use of filters, specifically adjusting brightness and contrast for a streaming video? I'm going to be asked about that, I need to have some kind of answer as to whether it's necessary or not. It could impact my transcode time, after all."

It depends on your source. There's far too many filters which vary in quality and effectiveness by compression app to go through them.

If your source is interlaced you MUST deinterlace. Compressor Frame Controls is slow so Better is often good enough compared to Best. These days I always shoot progressive. Some people like pushing the contrast and there are various ways to do that. Gamma would be one choice. Some like pushing saturation. If blacks are noisy Black Restore can crush them at the cost of losing detail.